TREATED WOOD SPECIAL ISSUE By Kim Merritt
PLUGS IN your pressure-treated wood? That’s typically a good sign.
Digging into plugged holes in treated wood
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of pressure-treated wood products receiving your order or while shopping for items in the store, you may be surprised to see pieces containing plugged holes. If you are like most consumers, you may think, “That can’t be good!” On the contrary, it can be a good thing, and here’s why! Like all manufactured products, various quality control practices determine if pressure-treated wood products meet the specified minimum quality standards. To meet building code specifications; treated wood products must conform to industry quality requirements. These requirements are checked by the producing treating plant, and then the plant’s quality control process is audited by independent, third-party agencies that ensure plants produce treated wood products in accordance with industry standards. Finding these plugged holes in pieces of treated lum-
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s a buyer
ber is evidence that this quality system is in place. The American Wood Protection Association’s (AWPA) Book of Standards provides the minimum specifications and practices for evaluating preserved wood. Most model building codes, including the International Building Code, will specify AWPA Standards,
QUALITY MARK gives assurance that the wood has been inspected by an accredited third-party agency.
n Building Products Digest n April 2022
or equivalent, as minimum acceptance criteria. The industry standards used to evaluate the level of treatment in wood products require a sampling process. The AWPA quality control measures used to evaluate the level of treatment in lumber products requires that the plant utilize a sampling process that includes collecting wood borings randomly from a minimum number of pieces within a given treatment batch or “charge.” These cores are taken by a special boring bit that cuts and removes a predetermined length core. The core sample is then observed to determine the depth of preservative penetration and the analysis of preservative retention in a specified, outer assay zone. The treating plant is responsible for applying this process on every charge of wood that it treats. The minimum preservative penetration and retention requirements must be met before a charge is considered conforming and Building-Products.com
